Angelelli and Taylor look to return to winning ways at Road America

SunTrust Racing

It’s Time To Restore Order Beginning at Road America

#10 SunTrust Racing Corvette DP: Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor

Photo by: Kenneth May

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (June 20, 2012) – A year ago, SunTrust Racing co-
drivers Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor were riding high when they joined
their GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series competitors for the series’ first
race since 2001 at historic Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

Angelelli and Taylor were coming off back-to-back victories on Memorial
Day at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn., and at Watkins Glen (N.Y.)
International’s prestigious Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

Taylor promptly qualified on the pole at Road America for the third of six
consecutive races, and there appeared to be no looking back as he and
Angelelli led 12 of the 46 race laps around the 4-mile, 14-turn circuit
that’s hosted the world’s most legendary road-racing stars and cars since
1955. Strategy, as it turned out, didn’t quite work in the SunTrust team’s
favor in its quest for a third straight win, but Angelelli and Taylor
still found their way to the podium with a hard-earned third-place finish.

Fast-forward to 2012 and Angelelli and Taylor once again have a pair of
recent back-to-back wins in their hip pocket as they head to Road America
for Saturday’s GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series 250. But this time, since
scoring victories at Homestead-Miami Speedway in April and New Jersey
Motorsports Park in Millville in May, the drivers of the No. 10 SunTrust
Corvette Dallara DP of Wayne Taylor Racing have suffered not one, but two
DNFs (did not finish) in back-to-back fashion at Detroit’s Belle Isle
street circuit and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington.

Add to that a DNF at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona and one of the
Rolex Series’ highest achievers when it comes to lead-lap finishes and
podium celebrations since it joined the series in 2004 now has three DNFs
in its first six races of 2012. That’s certainly uncharacteristic, to say
the least, for a SunTrust Racing team that had a grand total of eight DNFs
in the previous eight seasons.

Angelelli has been there every step of the way since the outset of the
2004 season. He and Wayne Taylor, Ricky’s father, reeled off 26
consecutive races before the SunTrust team suffered its first-ever DNF at
the 2006 season-opening Rolex 24. That impressive run included the
completion of all 2,056 race laps contested in 2005 en route to that
year’s Rolex Series championship for the SunTrust team. It’s a mark for
perfection that still stands, not having occurred before, or duplicated
since.

In the eight Rolex Series season prior to this one, the SunTrust team
completed 96 of 104 races (92.3 percent) and a solid 79 of those (76
percent) on the lead lap. In that time, the team completed 14,728 of
15,534 possible race laps – that’s a remarkable rate of 94.8 percent.

Such impressive numbers make it all the more apparent that this year’s
occurrences are an exception and not the norm in the SunTrust Racing camp.
Fortunately, just 14 points separate the sixth-place Angelelli and Taylor
from first place in the championship with seven races remaining on the
schedule.

As they head to beautiful Road America this weekend, they will be bound
and determined to restore order.

You and the SunTrust team have had an incredible record since you joined
the series in 2004 of completing laps and finishing races well. Has this
season, so far, been a little difficult to deal with?

“After so many years of not having many DNFs, having these last two
recently, and also the one at Daytona, makes me feel kind of weird because
it’s something we’ve never really experienced. Certainly not three in six
races. At the same time, it puts pressure on us. We have to finish the
races. We have to finish on the podium. We have to stay in the
championship fight. I can’t hide the fact that we are in a difficult
situation because we have to perform and we need to finish. Those two DNFs
at Detroit and Mid-Ohio were very frustrating to me. Daytona, we already
talked about that a thousand times about that one and there’s not really
anything to say about it. Mid-Ohio, it’s in the past. It’s done. We are
looking ahead, knowing we need to finish the races, first, and second, we
need to finish in the top-three in order to maintain the championship
fight. This is a must. This is my aim. This is our goal for Road America
and Watkins Glen coming up.”

You did well at Road America in the series’ first visit there last year.
What are you expecting for this weekend?

“With the new car, everything we do is going to be something new. Good
tracks can become bad tracks. Bad tracks can become good tracks. Last
year, Road America was in the middle – it was good in terms of performance
but not in terms of longevity. But we did finish on the podium. I’m
expecting us to be competitive and in the top-three. I’m not expecting
major fallout. I definitely like that track, so that’s definitely a good
thing. I’m sure we’ll have a good race. It’s going to be my time to
qualify and start the race, so that will be fun.”

How’s the mood of the team after back-to-back DNFs at Detroit and Mid-
Ohio?

“Mid-Ohio was disappointing because we were already calculating the
championship points and were already planning on finishing second, knowing
we didn’t have a winning car. To lose all that, plus a lot more, was
pretty devastating. I think we’re all looking forward to the next couple
of races in a big way. The BMW and Fords got additional RPM, so that was a
big change and we’ll have to see how that plays out. It seems backward
because they are the ones on top in the championship. The short tracks
we’ve been at the last five races are setup- and aero-based. Road America
is the first of many long, fast tracks we go to in a row and now those
guys also have a rules break.”

How do you expect the track and the race to play out this weekend?

“I really like the track. It’s really hard on tires. That was something we
found out in the race last year. It’ll be two hours, which is a nice,
manageable distance. But it also makes it tough because, if you want to
make it a one-stop race, tire management will be tough. You’ll have to be
able to go a full hour on the same set. So, if you have to race somebody
hard the final 20 minutes, things could get very interesting. In general,
you want downforce in the car for the low-speed parts of the track that
are pretty important. But it also has extremely long straights, where the
downforce can be your enemy. So, you never have the perfect feel with the
car all the way around the track. Last year, we learned a lot about
downforce levels we need. Going back, we’re a year smarter, but we’ve got
a little bit of a challenge with the new car.”

Your general thoughts on this weekend’s race as we head to Road America?

“I can’t say enough about what a great job this team’s been doing.
Obviously, we’ve had these three DNFs, which is unfortunate because that’s
the tough way to try and win a championship. But we have two really good
wins to offset things and we’re not too far back in the points with a lot
of races to go. The racing is so competitive. I’m happy to be in a
Corvette with Corvette power and feel, without a doubt, we have the best
team and drivers and partners, and all I can focus on is coming to Road
America and trying to win the race. So, we’ll put our best foot forward
this weekend. I’m looking forward to Road America. I’ve always liked that
place. Let’s just get there and make it a good weekend, and then carry on
from there.”